The creators of the Narcos series return to Netflix with a new production, this time focusing on Griselda Blanco. Are the two series linked? We tell you everything.
We know the story of Pablo Escobar, but a little less that of Griselda Blanco. And yet, this famous Colombian drug trafficker and prominent member of the Medellin cartel launched a thriving business in Florida, more particularly in Miami, where she set the city ablaze. In 6 episodes, the series led by an unrecognizable Sofia Vergara, looks back on her rise.
Behind Griselda is the team that adapted Escobar’s life in Narcos, and which tackled the spin-off about the Mexican cartels. The two series are logically linked, even if the producers made a drastic choice, not to mix the two universes, as producer Eric Newman explained to us:
“It was the only way to do it. For several reasons, we chose to focus on Griselda’s story, and Sofia’s incredible performance. She couldn’t be made the weak link in a chain. We worked on Narcos for a very long time. At the time, we already knew the character of Griselda. But we didn’t manage to integrate it into the series. His story is far too interesting to sacrifice his character in Narcos. She had to have her own series.”
Unfortunately for Narcos fans, you are not likely to see the incredible Wagner Moura again on your screens, nor even the DEA agents played by Pedro Pascal and Boyd Holbrook since their characters only joined the DEA in 80-90 and that Griselda takes place in the 70s.
But the most observant will have recognized in the first episode the actor Alberto Ammann, the interpreter of Pacho Herrera in Narcos, and who here plays a completely different character (Griselda’s husband), implying from the first minutes that the two productions do not take place in the same universe.
Note that the action of Griselda does not take place in Colombia but entirely in the United States. A few allusions to the Medellin cartel are still made – notably with the Ochoa family, but that ends there…